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A long festering feud of
sorts has offered an interesting sidelight to the media coverage of the
presidential campaign. It all started
when Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post news media manufacturing shop decided
Donald Trump was not worthy of being covered as news.
Here was what her minions
said about it.
A Note About Our Coverage
Of Donald Trump's 'Campaign'
Ryan Grim Washington
bureau chief for The Huffington Post
Danny Shea Editorial
Director, The Huffington Post
After watching and listening to Donald Trump since
he announced his candidacy for president we decided we won't report on Trump's
campaign as part of The Huffington Post's political coverage. Instead, we will
cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple:
Trump's campaign is a sideshow. We won't take the bait. If you are interested
in what The Donald has to say, you'll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians
and The Bachelorette.
Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim also
dismissed Trump as a "clownshow" in an interview about the decision
with Business Insider.
In his interview with Business Insider, Grim said
Trump is only performing well in the polls "because of the big field"
in the Republican primary.
Of course, the Donald
responded in typical Trump fashion, take no prisoners.
Donald Trump's campaign
dismissed the Huffington Post as a "glorified blog" in a statement on
Friday evening.
"The only clown show
in this scenario is the Huffington Post pretending to be a legitimate news
source," the Trump campaign statement said.
Though the statement was
titled "Donald J. Trump Response To Huffington Post," a Trump
spokeswoman said it was attributable to his campaign. The statement pointed to
the fact Trump has previously criticized the Huffington Post on Twitter.
"If you read
previously written Tweets, Mr. Trump has never been a fan of Arianna Huffington
or the money-losing Huffington Post," the statement said.
Indeed, in one 2012 tweet,
Trump launched a series of personal attacks on the site's cofounder and editor
in chief, Arianna Huffington, that referenced her 1997 divorce from a former
congressman who later announced he was gay.
Trump tweeted,
"@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why
her former husband left her for a man - he made a good decision."
For the record, Arianna and Michael Huffington split in 1997 ... and a year
later, the former congressman revealed that he's bisexual. Michael is now a gay
rights activist.
Trump has been ripping the Huffington Post ever since the website ran a story
on August 16, which attempted to uncover why Donald has been so
"crabby" recently.
After the article ran, Trump called the Post a "loser" that will
"die like AOL is dying."
The Trump campaign's
statement also touted his positioning in a series of polls and vowed he would
win the first two presidential primaries.
"Mr. Trump is number
one in the unimportant Huffington Post poll, along with all other recently
released polls including Reuters, FOX, USA Today/Suffolk
University, and The Economist. Mr. Trump is in first place in Nevada, where he is also
number one, by a wide margin, with Hispanics. He is number one in North Carolina and expects to win Iowa
and New Hampshire,"
the statement said.
Arianna long has been a
fixture in the NYC and California
elite social circles.
She began The Huffington
Post on May 10, 2005, as a liberal/left commentary outlet and alternative to
news aggregators such as the Drudge Report.
AOL acquired the mass market
Huffington Post for $315 million on February 7, 2011, making Arianna Huffington
editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group.
Though inspired by Drudge,
Fox News is the real enemy to all progressive, leftist, liberal bastions like
the Huffer. Perhaps Arianna is trying to
become the equal to Fox News President Roger Ailes.
Ironically, both Roger
Ailes (Fox) and Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post) have had recent public
disputes with Donald Trump but the different way they responded explains why Arianna is
no Roger Ailes.
When Trump complained that
Fox News was too tough on him in the first debate, Ailes talked to him directly
and worked out an arrangement to make sure he received full and fair news
coverage from Fox.
When Arianna got upset
with Trump, she ordered her supposedly professional reporters to treat him as
entertainment, not news, and like a clown, not viable candidate for office. I suppose such is the reaction one might
expect considering the diametrically opposed political philosophies of the two
although prejudging the news is rather rare in journalism.
As Trump climbed to the
top of the polls and the Huffer continued to ignore him they lost out on a
massive opportunity to make money off the Donald. No other liberal media outlet took such
bizarre action and then sent out mouthpieces to dish the Trump campaign as
clownish, not even The New York Times or Washington Post.
Perhaps such different
reactions by Ailes and Huffington, explains why Fox News continues to dominate
the cable airways.
Arianna Huffington created her news service in 2005. After 10 years in business, Arianna had sold
the Huffington Post in 2011 for $315 million when she was a minority
stockholder, and received $18 million for the company she started. She reportedly receives a salary of $4
million per year.
Roger Ailes was named the founding CEO of Fox News when it was started by Rupert Murdock in 1996. During his twenty year reign Fox News totally dominated cable news, and he
built the value of the network to the #48 most valuable brand in America, at
$13.3 billion in revenue with a value of $11.3 billion according to Forbes
Magazine. Roger receives over $20 million a year as Chairman and CEO.
There is a reason Roger
Ailes is rated one of the most powerful people in the news media. He learned the business from the inside out
and along the way was a crucial media advisor to Presidents Richard Nixon and
Ronald Reagan, and made many media personalities famous like Rush Limbaugh,
Bill O'Reilly, and Megyn Kelly.
Perhaps Arianna should
learn from the Master Roger Ailes and treat Trump as a viable presidential
candidate instead of playing juvenile games that demean the news business in America.
Of course the always unpredictable Trump will test the patience of anyone over and over. Just tonight, August 25, he again took a shot at Megyn Kelly for no particular reason and this time Roger Ailes has demanded Trump apologize to the Golden Girl of the Fox News network. Stay tuned for the latest update.
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